"This book examines the economic and political aspects of green trading and energy use from a global perspective. It also highlights the issues related to carbon trading, carbon credit, diplomatic conflicts in implementing environmental policies, energy use and energy efficiency, and the impact of these factors on economic outputs"--
This book examines issues ranging from global and domestic climate change and sustainable energy issues to the mineral-energy complex issues that have given rise to local and sector-specific problems.
Projecting win-win situations, new economic opportunities, green growth and innovative partnerships, the green economy discourse has quickly gained centre stage in international environmental governance and policymaking. Its underlying message is attractive and optimistic: if the market can become the tool for tackling climate change and other major ecological crises, the fight against these crises can also be the royal road to solving the problems of the market. But how ‘green’ is the green economy? And how social or democratic can it be? This book examines how the emergence of this new discourse has fundamentally modified the terms of the environmental debate. Interpreting the rise of green economy discourse as an attempt to re-invent capitalism, it unravels the different dimensions of the green economy and its limits: from pricing carbon to emissions trading, from sustainable consumption to technological innovation. The book uses the innovative concept of post-politics to provide a critical perspective on the way green economy discourse represents nature and society (and their interaction) and forecloses the imagination of alternative socio-ecological possibilities. As a way of repoliticising the debate, the book advocates the construction of new political faultlines based on the demands for climate justice and democratic commons. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental politics, political ecology, human geography, human ecology, political theory, philosophy and political economy. Includes a foreword written by Erik Swyngedouw (Professor of Geography, Manchester University).
Given the world-wide ecological crisis, to what extent do the current economic systems of production and consumption need to change? To make substantial changes to the dominant economic system as the author proposes, area new politics required? What are the relations between economic and political changes? M. Athena Palaeologu's lucid and engaging analysis offers concrete proposals for moving beyond our current social and environmental impasse. In market-driven economies around the world ecological crises are creating major problems of supply and distribution. The inability of governments to manage these environmental problems both domestically and internationally has led to widespread contradictions between public rhetoric and political practice. A growing number of contemporary publications respond to these crises by advocating a successful marriage of the corporate marketplace with the goals of environmentalism, in a marketing landscape where large and small corporations are tripping over each other to present their "e;green"e;credentials. M. Athena Palaeologu's timely work Green Politics,Green Economics examines these apologetic responses to broach an uncomfortable but fundamental question-is long-term and sustainable development really possible under market capitalism? Palaeologu develops two alternative approaches to these environmental challenges: (i) a"e;green politics"e;that places major importance on achieving ecological goals through grassroots participatory citizen involvement, drawing heavily on values shared with feminist and social movements, and; (ii) a"e;green economics"e;that address the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and the natural ecosystems which sustain them. The focus of both of these approaches is the"e;scale"e;conundrum: how are we to implement a green economics capable of realising development within the ecological constraints of our planet's biosphere?
Old men used to sit in corner stores and discuss business, work, and politics. Women used to come together and talk about the men as they took care of the home and children, or even more recently as a part of the workforce. Today, however, politics is a shunned topic, and conversation is all but dead. It is difficult to stay informed and talk with each other about life and politics. It is even more difficult to stay informed on a technical topic such as energy and something as double-sided as politics. Yet it is imperative that people stay informed and well-connected to direct their government. This book shows how the government (President, House and Senate, left and right) have destroyed the energy industry, taxed the middle class, and prevented well thinking, regular folks from solving our energy supply crisis. This book has thirty-three charts and graphs, most from bi-partisan or independent government sources to make a case for less government involvement in the energy industry. There are some astonishing revelations and a compelling case for reducing air emissions by 60 percent and creating jobs at the same time by building a particular type of new generation. This is a compelling argument that has never been presented before. I hope you enjoy the read.
The carbon markets are in the middle of a fundamental crisis - a crisis marked by collapsing prices, fleeing actors, and ever increasing greenhouse gas levels. Yet carbon trading remains at the heart of global attempts to respond to climate change. Not only this, but markets continue to proliferate - particularly in the Global South. The Politics of Carbon Markets helps to make sense of this paradox and brings two urgently needed insights to the analysis of carbon markets. First, the markets must be understood in relation to the politics involved in their development, maintenance and opposition. Second, this politics is multiform and pervasive. Implementation of new techniques and measuring tools, policy development and contestation, and the structuring context of institutional settings and macro-social forces all involve a variety of political actors and create new forms of political agency. The contributions study the total extent of the carbon markets, from their prehistory to their contemporary expansion and wider impacts. This wide-ranging political perspective on the carbon markets is invaluable to those studying and interested in ecological markets, climate change governance and environmental politics.
This book advances an ecologically grounded approach to International Political Economy (IPE). Katz-Rosene and Paterson address a lacuna in the literature by exploring the question of how thinking ecologically transforms our understanding of what IPE is and should be. The volume shows the ways in which socio-ecological processes are integral to the themes treated by students and scholars of IPE – trade, finance, production, interstate competition, globalisation, inequalities, and the governance of all these, notably – and further that taking the ecological dimensions of these processes seriously transforms our understanding of them. Global capitalism has always been premised on the extraction, transformation and movement of what have become known as ‘natural resources’. The authors provide a synthesis of ecological arguments regarding IPE and weave them into an overall approach to be usable by others in the field. This synthesis draws on basic ecological political ideas such as limits to growth and environmental justice, ideas in ecological economics, practices of ecological movements in the global economy, as well as key ideas from other political economic traditions relevant for developing an ecological approach. Providing a broad and critical introduction to international political economy from a distinctly ecological perspective, this work will be a valuable resource for students and scholars alike.
Industrial houses have, in recent years, begun to favor green products and financial institutions are funneling investible funds to environmentally friendly industries as a priority. Implementation of green policy to support these changes requires economic as well as political support from various influential countries. Success of green policies will inevitably benefit biodiversity and global environmental health. The Handbook of Research on Economic and Political Implications of Green Trading and Energy Use is a scholarly research publication that presents global perspectives on the impact of green financing and accounting on the health of the environment while highlighting issues related to carbon trading, carbon credit, energy use, and energy efficiency and their impact on economic outputs. This reference features a range of topics including environmental policies and sustainable development and is essential for academicians, environmental scientists, policymakers, political scientists, students, and researchers.
A ‘green economy’ must be built on ‘green jobs’ - the kind of employment that is low carbon, intended to reduce energy use and expected to restore environmental quality. But attempts to define exactly what a ‘green job’ is have led to varied and often contradictory answers. There are many unresolved questions including whether we consider jobs in the nuclear fuel industry to be green jobs? Or is a worker at a glass making company which supplies the glass for the solar photovoltaic industry doing a green job given that glass making is a ‘dirty’ industry? This book deals with the relationship between "green" concepts (green jobs, green economy, green growth) and sustainable development. It examines to which extent creation of green jobs supports overall economic development as opposed to creation of elitist jobs and greenwashing. In order to do so, general conceptual frameworks for green jobs, green economy, green growth and green policy are presented as well as their implementation in ten countries selected among the Group of Twenty. The selection includes advanced (the European Union, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Republic of Korea, Japan) and developing countries (Mexico, China, Turkey and Brazil). The analysis presented in this book shows that although green concept is well-intentioned, its implementation depends on local circumstances – economic, political and social. Developed countries perceive green growth as a way to create new markets and demand, while developing countries rely more on labor intensive growth and less expensive green jobs. Thus, greening the economy does not diminish differences between rich and poor. This book is suitable for those who study and work in Ecological Economics, Sustainable Development and Labor Economics.
For decades, governments have tried to foster industrial competitiveness and economic growth. Many instruments are known to work, and many lessons have been learned. However, humanity is increasingly feeling the effects of natural resource depletion. The rate of this depletion is deeply unsustainable, and it is – as of yet – inextricably linked to economic growth and development. To preserve acceptable living conditions for future generations, while at the same time creating these conditions for millions of poor in the first place, we must achieve a de-linking of economic activity and resource depletion. This book identifies the drivers and success factors of green industrial policy, which seeks to reconcile the synergies and trade-offs which exist between economic and environmental goals. Greening the economy is a goal which will require enormous investment. As markets are currently failing to provide the required incentives for environmental sustainability, governments must intervene and provide ‘policy rents’ for investments in sustainability while withdrawing rents from polluting investments. In this they will face the risk of political capture by interest groups and difficult choices among technologies. Rent management is therefore the heart of green industrial policy and the focus of this book. On top of this, the country examples provided in this volume focus on the emerging powers, which will have an important influence the future of our planet. However, the lessons learned are valuable not only for countries introducing green industrial policies for the first time, but also for those under pressure to reform existing policies. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and policymakers in the areas of energy policy, sustainable development, industrial economics and ecological economics.
